So, I was surprised to see this on Crunchyroll, because I thought this was an American film with Japanese animators as a cost saving gimmick. So I rewatched it and some of the movie I remember watching as a kid, but other parts I seem to have forgotten. Also, as of the writing of this review, what is with that thumbnail? They've attempted to make them look more anime or something.
Story wise, tackling the idea of a repeating dream sequences can present problems, but the film seemed to mostly handle that well. The 'Oh, I'm still in a dream' notion does wear thin, but thankfully they don't dwell on that for too long. Other than that, the narrative is simple and family oriented. A good morality tale on keeping promises and finding the courage to fix mistakes.
I think that this film's animation has held up reasonably well, on par with other animated features of the 80's and 90's. Not as good as Disney Renaissance, but better than Rankin & Bass. Sort of that Don Bluth film area. Slumberland and its inhabitants are whimsical and colorful, while their nightmare counterparts can be appropriately frightening to younger audiences. Perhaps too frightening for some children, so grain of salt for parents.
Is there an edited version of the English dub out there? Or did I suppress it? I remember the clown character Flip being a typical hobo clown (light face makeup and dark mouth makeup), not a Minstrel Show clown with all racial baggage that carries with it. Now there's a third cringe joining Jynx and Mr. Popo in the world of awkward Japanese animation transitions to the US.
The English dub has some issues. Moments of missing or awkward lip flaps, line delivery that is mismatched with the tone, and dialogue out of sync are all present at one point or other. Thankfully, this is more of an exception than rule. The music is alright, if a little flamboyant at times.
For a film that went through so many hands while in development hell, it has survived to be a decent film for the family. Hope you enjoy.

Let me begin this with a quick story. My parents wanted me to know what was going on in pop culture. While being the youngest they sheltered me from some of things in life (MTV was a no go for me until 12 I watched it anyway) they made sure to not let that get in the way of life as a whole. They wanted me to also be cultured. Film was no taboo and they made sure to take me to the latest Disney and Don Bluth animated movies that were released so that I’d understand good cinema. Sometimes they would even take me to see another smaller studios animated work or rent them from Stammy’s Video Store in Hildebrand North Carolina. Other times they would hold flat out say no to take me to a movie or from even renting it. This was either for one of three reasons: A) they had heard from many sources or had seen the movie themselves and did not find it to be good, B ) they had no interest in seeing the movie, or C) They did not understand it for some reason. That final one was the reason that I did not catch this movie during its theatrical run. Enter by older brother. He was the once who knew there were great, or at least interesting, features to be found outside of the norm. He convinced my father to rent My Neighbor Totoro form me when I was sick, he convinced my mother to allow him to take me to see Akira in theaters when I was fourteen, and he rented this for me knowing that it was just something that my parents did not get and had no interest in watching because of that. So because of that I have found memories of watching this film as a kid. Memories that may, in some way, blind me to several of the flaws of this movie when I first saw it. However, I do not believe that those flaws would really hurt the sheer enjoyableness of this film as in the end, while it is no Ghibli Film, it is still a very will done flick.

The animation is on par with Don Bluth’s work at the time. For a reference I’d say look at All Dogs Go to Heaven or The Land Before Time. This means it is a few cuts above the rest. This film is wonderful to look at and visually beautiful. While at points you can tell where corners may have been cut, those moments are brief and are more than made up for with magnificent moments that count for they come at the perfect times. Who cares for example if lip movement may be off for a scene of superfluous dialogue that has little to no importance to the plot, when several scenes later we see animation that was used with the budget saved from that for an amazing action scene full of fluid movements, sharp visuals, and brilliant timing. With those wonderful moments in mind the fact that much of the film still looks great I’m able to excuse the little bits of cost cutting here and there. To add even more love to this, this was the first time I saw this movie in its unedited version. That in and of itself was fantastic because now there was even more visual candy for me to consume and believe me when I say ate it all up like a sleepwalking child eats a pie. This is including a scene that makes the Nightmare King look even more intimidating than he already is.

The voice work is…okay. Mickey Rooney does a great job as Flick bringing his vigor to the part, but much of the rest of the cast seems to just be trying to play the archetypes and not bring anything personal to the parts. They don’t do a bad job, but they just don’t have any true emotion than what is required for the characters. This is kind of sad. Effort was given but not really that of trying to go past what is the status quo of the generalized characterizations. To me this may be one of the movies weakest parts because of it. Bill Martin may be the worst offender of this in his portrayal of the Nightmare King. It’s cold, creepy, arrogant, and slimy, but it just lacks. It is everything that is needed, but just that the extra bit needed is just not there. It seems as though he knew what the Nightmare King was supposed to be and decided “okay, I’ll leave it at that.” And I’m not saying he is a bad voice actor. No, he took over the role of Shredder after Uncle Phil left on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and did a great job. He does a great job, but just so lacking. Mr. Rooney is the only one who seems to add that hoostpa to the role and give a truly loving performance.

The music is decent as well. It’s not forgettable, but not worth remembering either. It is there to do its job. Disney this is not. I would not be clamoring to own the soundtrack to Nemo. There is no “Little Town”, “Be Prepared”, or “Savages to the soundtrack but once again I reiterate it does not fail. It just does what it needs and little more than that.

The story here is what helps make this movie. While I feel there is a little too much repetition on certain points (Nemo returning to his room believing it was a dream twice), this may be were the more enjoyable points really do come out. While the dialogue is not overly mature, it is clever. It does not talk down to kids, but instead give their dues. Nemo learns his lessons as they come to him in his adventures and accepts his mistakes, if not right away then soon afterwards. He is a boy who knows that he is growing up and that with growing up will come new responsibilities. Not all of these will be met with successes, but the fact is that he, like many of us, must learn from these mistakes. He looks to those older, wiser, and/or more experienced than him for help so that he might learn and achieve his end goal. In that I think there is a valuable lesson. Many films portray children, adolescents, teenagers, and young adults as solving their own problems. Here while Nemo is the hero and is the one who eventually defeats the villain, he does so with advice and knowledge given to him. You don’t always have to do something yourself, sometimes it’s good to get help.

In the end Little Nemo is not a perfect movie by any stretch, but with great animation, wonderful story telling, and good lessons to be learned from it I’d say take a look for yourself. On my normal scale I’d give Little Nemo a solid three out of four stars and for those out of ten lovers out there I’d say good seven and a half out of ten. Watch Little Nemo, its well worth it.

Little Nemo was a project doomed for failure. Attempts to bring Winsor McCay's 1905 comic strip Little Nemo to film floundered for over a decade. Spearheaded by Tokyo Movie Shinha's Yutaka Fujioka, many big names were once attached to the project including Hayao Miyazaki, George Lucas, Isao Takahata, Moebius, Brad Bird, and Ray Bradbury among others. The result was a financial bomb but it has left a cult legacy that many people fondly remember.

Little Nemo watches like a dream. The first half of the movie is a visual treat of physics defying architecture and detailed animation. But just as dream can easily turn to nightmare the second half is dark and brooding with twisting, violent landscapes. The two halves serve to drive home its dreamworld theme: the safety of the familiar and the fear of the unknown.

Little Nemo is well paced, gorgeously animation, fun and scary.

Winsor McCay, creator of Little Nemo, was one of the greatest geniuses to ever hit the cartooning and animation world. Thanks to him, we now have films that hybrid live action and animation, and also cartoons that use photographs for backgrounds. He actually used this technique about one hundred years before Cartoon Network's Gumball debuted, and certainly long before there was PhotoShop. A master animator, he produced his own Little Nemo short during the silent era, and hand painted every, realistic frame, during a time in which color film hadn't been invented yet.

With that said, he's a tough act to follow.

When it comes to the design of the characters, Nemo is the only one looking out of place. The other characters look either close enough to the original 1911 comic strip, or at least look like an updated version thereof. But since Nemo is the title character, it's hard to look past how out of place he looks. The story isn't very close to the comic strip at all, and the whole film feels creepy.

Id did capture the feeling you get during a nightmare, which is a sensation Winsor McCay was best known for, which earns it another star, but it's just a weird film that tries too hard to be Little Nemo in the 1980's.

I remember my cousins having this movie on VHS, but they sold it a long time ago. So I had long since forgotten what happens in it. I was really surprised to see it was on Crunchy Roll, I enjoyed watching it!! I'm giving it 4 out of 5, because it wasn't "mind-blowingly" awesome, but still really good. Slumberland was beautiful and the main characters had nice designs. I like how it's more of a dark fairy tale. I think it would be cool if Crunchyroll would put up more anime movies.

I loved this movie ever since it came out in the 1990s. Like a number of other folks, I too had the original NES game that accompanied it and spent many hours in front of the TV with both.

The movie is based on the Little Nemo comic strip from the early 1900s by Windsor McCay. Definitely worth a read if you find them (there are some inexpensive compilations for Kindle available through Amazon).

The movie itself is great. It has good voice-actors. A decent soundtrack. Anyone that's a Miyazaki/Ghibli fan should enjoy it thoroughly.

A Blu-ray version came out in 2012 with both English and Japanese language tracks. Maybe we'll see a refresh from the current English-only, 480p video available currently.

Dear Crunchyroll,
My name is Corduroy Kravitz. We have started a new Anime Club and the first meeting we watched Little Nemo threw your site Crunchyroll. We picked this movie as a jumping off point because of its very accessible for all ages. And a good way to get to know the new members of the club. At are first meeting we had 8 attendants. We had everyone rate Little Nemo at the end of the movie. It was a clean cut of four 5 star ratings and four 4 star ratings. All and all it was a very good first showing.
The movie is a classic anime in my eyes. The Little Nemo version you have on your site is far better then on DVD. There was a good 30-35 minutes of extra footage that we all enjoyed very much. A really great anime.
We will continue to use Crunchyroll and am so glad that a site like Crunchyroll exists. Crunchyroll is easy to use and has a wide variety of shows for everyone. Siuslaw Public Library and everyone in are new and exciting Anime Club say thank you.

I loved this movie ever since I was a kid. Not gunna lie, was looking to watch Love Hina and came across this. I can see where the anime comes in, but it is good old fashion animation. I think what stuck with me (and makes me want to watch it again) is how it fluidly moves from scene to scene and you can actually feel what is going on. As a kid, it kind of freaked me out (like a bad dream) but I can appreciate it more now.